Damm-LaRosa Tapped as New Shark Fights 14 Co-Headliner

Tara
LaRosa (right) and Carina Damm have agreed to square off on March
11. | Keith Mills/Sherdog.com

It did not take long for event organizers to find a new semi-main
event for Shark
Fights 14.

Hours after it was announced that the slated rematch between
James
Irvin and Houston
Alexander had been scratched due to Irvin allegedly testing
positive for steroids and Alexander being injured, 125-pound female
standouts Carina Damm
and Tara
LaRosa have been tapped to square off in the replacement
co-headliner.

HDNet, the channel which will broadcast the March 11 event from the
Fair Park Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas, revealed the matchup on
Wednesday. Middleweights Matt Horwich
and Danillo
Villefort will square off in the card’s main event.

Damm, 32, enters the bout on the heels of her first losses since
2007. The Brazilian “Barbie Girl” had racked up 10 consecutive wins
before running into Hitomi
Akano in Strikeforce
last August and subsequently falling to unbeaten prospect Cat Zingano.
The sister of lightweight Rodrigo
Damm, Carina recently relocated from her hometown of Vila
Velha, Brazil, to St. Louis, Mo., in order to train and teach at
Finney’s MMA.

The 33-year-old LaRosa had her own 15-fight win streak snapped in
2010, when the Philadelphia-based New Jersey native lost a
razor-thin split decision to Roxanne
Modafferi. LaRosa bounced back, however, besting Strikeforce
vet Takayo
Hashi in a five-round November affair to capture the DaMMAge
Fight League 125-pound title. A nine-year veteran of the sport,
LaRosa holds an impressive 19-2 ledger, which includes notable wins
over Akano, Modafferi, Shayna
Baszler and Kelly
Kobold.